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Slot.It GT40 white kit

5K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  driver#8 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I'm not a hugely passionate fan of Sixties cars, generally I prefer my historics up to the Fifties and then Eighties/Nineties stuff. However, the Ferrari P4 is the most beautiful car ever seen on four wheels. The only problem is that none of the slot car versions are accurate enough or affordable enough.

At Le Mans a couple of years ago there was a big display of Ford vs. Ferrari cars and the history of 1964-67. I spent most of my time drooling over the Ferraris but this GT40 was utterly gorgeous:

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It was entered for the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours and driven by Innes Ireland and Sir John Whitmore. Apparently it was the first Mk.I to be fitted with the 'definitive' GT40 front end treatment. Having grown up at Silverstone, Innes was usually to be found propping up the bar or prowling round the paddock - frankly he terrified me. Sort of a paddock pirate! However, in his day he was one of the fastest men in the world.

My wife gave me the book Go Like Hell for Christmas and it's an entertaining way to spend a few hours. Makes me wish that they'd made the movie a year or two back, when everything was right on the cusp of going in to production. Anyway, when looking for slot-related stuff to tie in to the book, I saw that Le Mans Decals was offering the set to make this car... so I had to give it a go.

The colour is Ford Linden Green and I actually brush painted this one using a model brush and a little pot of automotive touch-up paint from a classic Ford specialist. Innes Ireland's helmet band was completed with the chequered stripe from Penelope Pitlane's set of 'useful decals for old cars'. The wheels are Racer items that I'd been saving for a rainy day.

In order to fit the rear wheels inside the bodywork I've had to swap it from sidewinder to inline. That was a straight swap from an old Porsche 956 so the motor is now a 25k instead of the old 21k job. This in turn meant Dremelling away a little bit of the interior but actually it's not too intrusive. So here's the result:

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In the absence of an accurate or affordable P4, I've got the Betta/Classic P3 body to work on for a running mate. That will be the next project.

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There are one or two brush marks but it's not too bad. Even with primer, three thin coats of paint and two layers of varnish the body only weighs 16g! It's completely ineligible for our club's 1960s era class because the wheels and motor aren't stock but I'm hopeful that it will run all right. All in all very happy - hope you like it.
 
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#2 ·
Very nice job you've done on this GT40 - it's a great colour and the hand-painting looks very neat. Isn't there an open top GT40 also in this colour?

I remember Denis Jenkinson in MotorSport back in the 1960s writing about bumping into Innes Ireland in a roadside café somewhere in the middle of Europe, Ireland was trailing this GT40 between races and had stopped for a liquid lunch....

David

PS that Classic fibreglass shell of the Ferrari is very accurate and makes up into a very nice slot car
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
Thanks, David and Bob.

There's the spyder - looks rather splendid in Linden Green. I wish that cars still came in these sorts of colours. An aerosol would have been £30 so I settled for a little touch-up pot and brushing my GT40. Fortunately, I do enough static models to be able to cope. The only brush marks are around the dip on the rear panel where the photo-etch grille goes. One more layer of varnish would settle that.

My favourite DSJ story was that the late Alan Henry went to pick him up and take him to the airport once. As a token of appreciation, Jenks offered to cook Alan breakfast, whereupon he fried two eggs and gave one to Alan on a plate - while serving his own on a clear spot on the draining board. Alan said: "Aren't you going to get a plate?" To which the reply was: "I can't - you've got it."

The Classic Ferrari is almost identical in size to the old SCX/Exin P3. I tarted one of those up but it's been signed by 'il Grande John' now (see below) so is a non-runner! Probably for the best as it was about the slowest car that I owned, even with the later wheels fitted.

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My main problem for the Classic Ferrari is the absence of nice wheels. Racer five-spokes are all gone and now it seems even Fly 512 wheels are rarities!
 
#6 ·
Fortunately, I do enough static models to be able to cope. The only brush marks are around the dip on the rear panel where the photo-etch grille goes. One more layer of varnish would settle that.
Recently I have built a few old Airfix kits and decided to hand paint them using Humbrol tinlets, mixed with thinners I found a couple of light coats produced quite good results.

Tire Wheel Car Vehicle Automotive design


David
 

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#7 ·
That's lovely stuff, David. What a beaut!

Munter - I shall add the wheel inserts to my next order. So glad you've got them! I reckon with some MRRC knock-offs they will look just dandy.

Here's my old clamshell P4. If there was a way to get it to squat down on the wheels a bit better I think this would be at least as good as the 2005 rendition. The curve on the front wings in particular is a million miles better.

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#9 ·
It's so much work, though, isn't it?

You'd have thought that it wasn't beyond the wit of a manufacturer to do for the P-series what Slot.It's done (and to a lesser extent NSR), with the GT40: accurate, race-able and available as a white kit.

Speaking of which, the CAD images that Scalextric has released of its Ford Mk.IV look wildly wrong to me. The rear arches don't curve downwards at all at the back and the front wheels look like they should be on a dragster or a mid-Seventies F1.

It's so tempting just to give in and buy a Racer P4, because they are soooo pretty, but at 65mm across finding anywhere to run it becomes an issue for most clubs and open events.

Ah, well...
 
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